EVER SINCE WE LOVE
万物生长
Director/Writer: LI Yu Cast: HAN Geng, FAN Bingbing, QI Xi
To Qiu Shui, a young lad in his most hungry, curious, and restless 20s, the whole world feels a little erotic. Studying at China's top medical college, he can break down men's carnal impulses with solid human anatomy knowledge but can't grasp the inner desire that draws him to three disparate romantic interests-the fairy-like hometown first love, the marriageable college girlfriend, and the sensuous working woman. It's the 1990s when China just opened up to exciting opportunities and risks. Unprecedented social fluidity provokes individuals' materialist and romantic appetites. This cruel new world eventually crushes Qiu Shui’s burning passion and takes each of his lovers away. As he looks back at his chaotic youth as a grownup years later, he's rewarded with a deeper understanding of what it means to live and love. Adapting the best-selling novel "Everything Grows", China’s prominent woman director Li Yu reunites with idol Fan Bingbing to bring female gaze to a male protagonist’s story for the first time.
“...helmer Li is on surer footing here with the sort of material that has always suited her best: complex women in complicated relationships...Li’s protags are sexually assertive, her love scenes wantonly sensuous even within the boundaries of Chinese screening standards.”
NOW ON DVD
BONUS FEATURES: TRAILERS, MUSIC VIDEO, MAKING-OF
精彩花絮：预告片|主题曲|幕后特辑
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“Death is present in all the love scenes. Such symbols detach audience passion and create an unbridgeable gap between ideologies of the film and the patriarchal original book...The lively female characters with their own desire and agency deconstruct Qiu Shui’s male gaze and are enabled by the filmmaker to look back. ”
NOW IN VIRTUAL CINEMAS
9/17/2021 LOS ANGELES Laemmle Theatres
9/17/2021 ALBUQUERQUE Guild Cinema
9/17/2021 BOULDER International Film Series
9/17/2021 DENVER Denver Film Society
9/17/2021 WASHINGTON DC Alula Film Festival (aka DC Chinese Film Festival)
9/24/2021 TORONTO SinoLux
9/24/2021 SAN FRANCISCO Presidio Theatre
9/24/2021 WINSTON SALEM, NC A/perture Cinema
10/2/2021 ATLANTA Atlanta Asian Film Festival
“The somewhat bumpy ride taken to emotional maturity makes it infinitely more interesting than the routine campus-based nostalgia trips that are now a staple of China’s commercial cinema.”
“Technical contributions are strong on the visual side, with textured photography by the talented Zeng Jian (Blind Massage) that encompasses a wide range of moods.”
